I’m currently ,kind of" developing a 2.5 platformer for PC,but it’s still on paper…
I’ve been thinking what’s the big companies or indies workflow when creating a game.I know that the first step it’s only on paper,writing the story,drawing concept and so on.
But what after all this process is finished?
What’s next scripting and then modeling or more writing?
I’ve been thinking of doing the level modeling first,and the character modeling second because there are only 3-5 characters in my game,and then the scripting? Coming back to my question:
What’s your game development workflow…or what should be my game development workflow?
My process is as follows:
1.think of fun gameplay
2. Work out the precise gameplay elements
3. create a story to buffer the gameplay experience
4. Start modeling first
5. after most models are in the game, start scripting them ( gamecontroller etc.)
6. work out all the balancing issues of he player and enemies
7. then start making the level designs and testing them
8. polish polish polish
Since Im making games by myself, I do only some concept art, just to help formulate my ideas.
Doesnt really matter that much. If you do scripting first and modeling afterwards wont make any change. Important is that you lay out idea first and then do modeling and scripting. If you dont have everything sorted out, then you should start with scripting so you can see what gameplay actions will be required for assets, which might also depends on rigging, animations and asset structure.
Here is something I really recommend to anyone who wants to make a game: Do a prototype first! Prototypes are very simple tests that display the core gameplay functionality and that’s it. That means no production values besides what is literally mandatory for gameplay’s sake and no overly complicated code for anything that does not pertain to the core gameplay mechanic. There are many benefits to doing this.
You can test out your game and see if its really unique and really something you want to do and not just something that sounds good on paper but not in reality. If you didn’t prototype, you would have to literally spend months on your game to realize that this game might not work or be good for you, but at that point you are committed and force yourself to work on it and get it to work somehow. A meaningful prototype can be done in a week.
Once when you do a prototype, I don’t really think there are any steps you have to take in order to get a final game, it’s all dependant on who you are, what you are good at, do you have a team, and if so what is your team good at? Prototyping can and should be done during actual production as well, to test out level designs before you spend months modeling it only to realize the level doesn’t really work. The only thing I really have to say is make your workflow maleable so you can cut things out without pain so you can make the best game you can.
I found one of the best ways to prototype my ideas is to use Playmaker ( or another visual editor ). This is because they keep your ideas at the centre of your attention, and correct programming methodology does not interfere with pure gameplay.